


New Robes a.k.a. A Season In Hell

by cruisedirector



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crack, Denial, Episode: s07e25 What You Leave Behind, F/M, Oblivious, Post-Finale, Power Play, Prophets, Religion, Resurrection, Revisionist Fairy Tale, Sneezing, Wraith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-12-08
Updated: 2002-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:09:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruisedirector/pseuds/cruisedirector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Winn escaped from the Fire-Caves on Bajor, yet managed not to learn a thing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Robes a.k.a. A Season In Hell

**Author's Note:**

> A quickie afterword to "What You Leave Behind" and sort of a sequel to ["Winning"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/16857) and ["Darkness"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/18968), though you don't have to have read those to read this. It's for Leslie Magowan and Kathleen Dailey, who inspired it, in honor of DRush.

New robes, that was what she needed. The sun scalded Adami's skin as she crawled in the dirt in her underwear. Mercifully, it did not burn her eyes - nothing would ever again burn her eyes - Kosst Amojin had seen to that, when the Pah-Wraith protected her from his poisonous book. But new robes, where was she going to get new robes? And how was she going to get back to the capitol?

And how in the world was she going to explain?

She could tell part of the truth: that Gul Dukat had revealed to her the danger to Bajor presented by the Pah-Wraiths. She could say she accompanied him on his dark quest to learn more about the ancient threat. She could go so far as to suggest she'd purposely put herself in mortal danger in the Fire-Caves just to find a way to rid her beloved Bajorans of the menace, and to destroy their old Cardassian enemy at the same time. She could even claim that she knew all along who he was, and prove that she had tried to kill him. Poisoned wine, a clever device.

Though that, of course, would mean admitting that she had participated in the ritual to free the Pah-Wraiths...

Perhaps she would be better off feigning amnesia. It would not even be entirely untrue. Adami was unclear on what had happened to her from the moment Dukat, restored in his Cardassian skin, sent the Pah-Wraiths to attack her. She had felt herself burning, turning to flame. For one horrible glorious moment she had been among Them - a living fire, consuming itself in a torrent of rage. Then the Emissary had leapt, the men had fallen with the book...

The Kai had come to herself on the rock ledge, lying inches from the blood-red stain of the venomous wine. Her singed hair stank of burning, her gown was ripped. Yet she could feel her heart beating, could feel the moisture coating her sweat-slicked arms and fouled legs. Alive, alive, alive. And still herself, quite empty of Pah-Wraiths and Prophets and soul.

She sobbed aloud as she stumbled towards the entrance to the Caves, never looking back at the pit where the man she had loved took her nemesis to their conjoined fates. Somehow, as he made the ultimate sacrifice for Bajor, Benjamin Sisko saved her life. Freed her from the prison of the Fire-Caves. Released her from the trap of her own scheming. It was almost enough to make her believe in the Prophets again.

New robes, that was all she needed, and she could go back to being Kai as if she'd had nothing to do with the tragedy back there. Perhaps she could fashion a robe out of bedsheets. Adami swore a sudden oath - she certainly could not claim that she knew all along the true identity of Anjohl Tanon, most of her attendant Ranjins had heard the sounds of their lovemaking, and had witnessed the evidence on the sheets, the rug, the desk, the shrine. Dukat's genetic material stained her tapestries, her headpiece, even the side of her balcony. That was probably where Solbor had gotten it. Maybe it would be easiest to burn down her private rooms.

The former servant of the Prophets sneezed.

Fine: she would leave Dukat out of her story altogether. "Anjohl Tanon" had given her advice about the harvest, then gone back to Releketh, that was all anyone needed to know. Once she had new robes, she would claim she removed the Kosst Amojin from the archive at the request of the Emissary. Who would dare challenge her? She could blame the missing Solbor for the book's disappearance...she could credit her need to find it for the cancelled speeches before the Vedek Assembly.

She wondered what would happen if she walked into the Assembly just as she looked now. Would anyone even question her? If she walked as if arraigned ceremonially and pretended to have new robes at the hands of the Prophets, one of the fawning acolytes would surely back her up. She had been their Kai for years. Perhaps they would all claim to be able to see her decked out in finery.

Idiot politicians. Maybe she could find a way to blame them for Dukat's return. Maybe she could even find a way to blame Shakaar.

First Minister Winn. It had a triumphant sound.

A new title would bring new robes.

The scorching heat of Bajor's sun beat down like flames from the Fire-Caves. Rejected by the Prophets, rejected by the Pah-Wraiths, Winn Adami prepared to return to the banality which had always been her life.

 


End file.
